Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand's former prime minister, lashes out at military rulers: 'Democracy has died'

Lindsay Murdoch

Bangkok: Thailand's former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has declared that democracy is dead in her country after a military-stacked parliament voted to ban her from politics and prosecutors announced criminal charges that could see her jailed.

Thai soldiers keep watch as members of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) take part in a vote on impeachment cases against ousted Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra at the parliament in Bangkok. Photo: AFP

The moves against Ms Yingluck enraged her Red Shirt supporters but the movement's leaders warned against street protests in a country where political gatherings are banned under martial law.

"Today's impeachment is the highest provocation, aimed at encouraging the Red Shirts to come out so they (the junta) can shift the blame for all their faults on to the Red Shirts," said Jatuporn Prompan, the movement's leader.

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Ms Yingluck's supporters see the moves against her as part of a continuing push to dismantle the political machine of her powerful family and as a way to end the political career of the Thailand's first woman prime minister who won a landslide election in 2011.

The impeachment vote on Friday automatically bans Mr Yingluck from politics for five years, preventing her contesting the next general election if the generals fulfil a promise to allow one to be held by early 2016.

Members (right) of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) place their ballots into boxes as they take part in a vote on impeachment cases against ousted Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in Bangkok. Photo: AFP

The vote was contentious because it ousted 47-year-old Ms Yingluck under the power of a constitution that has been abrogated and from a position she no longer holds.

The military-appointed parliament voted 190 to 18 to impeach Ms Yingluck, accusing her of negligence in her oversight of a rice subsidy scheme.

Only hours earlier the attorney-general's office said it will indict Ms Yingluck for negligence over the scheme that had accumulated losses of at least $5.5 billion.

She could be jailed for up to 10 years if found guilty.

But on her Facebook page Ms Yingluck strongly defended the scheme, saying it benefited farmers.

She denied she was responsible for any corruption associated with it.

The scheme turned sour after rice hoarding failed to push up international prices as Vietnam and India overtook Thailand as the world's top rice exporters.

Ms Yingluck declared she will fight to the end to prove her innocence, no mater what the outcome.

"And most importantly, I want to stand alongside the Thai people. Together we must bring Thailand prosperity, bring back democracy and truly build justice in Thai society," she said.

Earlier Ms Yingluck said banning her from politics was a violation of her basic rights.

"This case that is aimed solely against me has a hidden agenda, it's politically driven," she said.

The military junta has warned it will act to prevent any protests, using the draconian powers of a 100-year-old martial law it imposed before the May coup that was mounted after months of anti-government streets protests.

Gatherings of more than five people are banned under the law, the media is tightly controlled and critics of the junta are taken away for so-called "re-education" in military bases.

Kwanchai Praipana, leader of the Red Shirt movement that supports the Shinawatra family, said Ms Yingluck is the latest of several people close to Mr Thaksin, a billionaire businessman living in Dubai, who are victims of "political persecution".

Somkid Chueakong, a politician from Ms Yingluck's Pheu Thai party, said impeachment would increase voter support for the party at the next election.

Political analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak, an associate professor at Chulalongkorn University, said the short-term effects of the move against Ms Yingluck are unlikely to be cataclysmic because the military is firmly consolidated under the current high command, with martial law as an instrument to deal with any public demonstrations.

But he said the medium and longer-term impact of going after Ms Yingluck will accumulate grievances likely to be more virulent when they eventually come to the fore.

Professor Thitinan wrote in the Bangkok Post that the military's decision to press on with criminal proceedings shows the "gloves are off and the push-back from the Thaksin side will be as unpleasant and undesirable as has been seen in the recent past".

Political parties linked to Ms Yingluck's exiled brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who is loathed by Thailand's royalist establishment and Bangkok middle-class, have won every election since 2001 with mass support in the country's north and north-east provinces.